Giraudoux, (Hippolyte) Jean

Giraudoux, (Hippolyte) Jean (1882–1944), French novelist and dramatist, whose fruitful collaboration with the actor-director Jouvet produced some of the finest plays of the period. Giraudoux was already a well-known novelist when his first play Siegfried (1928) was produced at the Comédie des Champs-Élysées. After Amphitryon 38 (1929), which, in an English adaptation by S. N. Behrman, had a great success in England and America with the Lunts as Jupiter and Alcmena, and Judith (1931), a biblical tragedy, came the enchanting Intermezzo (1933), a mixture of fantasy and realism seen in London in 1956 in a production by the Renaud-Barrault company. In La Guerre de Troie n'aura pas lieu (1935), Giraudoux traced the causes of the Trojan War to a lie and a misunderstanding. As Tiger at the Gates (with Michael Redgrave playing Hector) this made a belated appearance in London and New York in 1955 in a translation by Christopher Fry. In 1939, Ondine, a retelling of the legend of the water-nymph, began a successful run which was cut short in 1940; it was not revived until 1949. It was seen in French in London in 1953 and in English in an RSC production in 1961. In 1942 L'Apollon de Bellac was produced in Rio de Janeiro by Jouvet, who directed its first production in France in 1947. In 1943 came the première in Paris of Sodome et Gomorrhe, in which Lia, the leading role, was played by Edwige Feuillère. La Folle de Chaillot, a fantasy produced posthumously in 1945, re-established Giraudoux's magic. The play was an instant success in Paris and, as The Madwoman of Chaillot, was seen in New York (1948) and London (1951). Giraudoux's last play was Pour Lucrèce (1953), directed by Barrault at the Marigny and staged in London as Duel of Angels (1958) with Vivien Leigh as Paola, played originally by Edwige Feuillère. Revivals of some of Giraudoux's earlier plays have shown that their distinctive blend of verbal and theatrical fluency continues to be attractive.